When should my Turbo light be on?

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whosthecoolguy

whosthecoolguy

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My last LC was a BJ60 and it didn’t have a turbo so I’m not overly familiar with maintenance and use of the turbo on my ’91 HDJ81.

I found a post on maintenance issues when I was searching, but when should my turbo light(green dash light) be on? It seems like it is on when ever I’m on the gas, even just a little bit, but when I drove my friends Prado, it would only come on when you ‘stomped’ on it a little. I’m just worried about over use…or is that normal?
 
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Are you referring to the small green light?
I turns on whenever the turbo is producing any kind of boost. If you hit the gas hard when the truck is at 1000 rpm, then it's gonna flash. If you go very slow on the gas, it might get up to somewhere between 1500-1900 rpm before the light comes on

/Allan
 
Yes, thank you, small green light on the dash.
Mine seems to be on all the time, not just when I step on it. Anytime I’m remotely on the pedal, the turbo light will be on.

My question is, is this normal or should the turbo be producing boost only when the RPMs are way up and you need a little boost?
 
I'd say it's completely normal. My green light is on most of the time too. When I'm going down the road @ 70-80 kph the light sometimes stays off (Level road). But if I even think about touching the gas, the light will flash. When I'm doing above 80 kph the light is on all the time.

The orange light means you are "overboosting" and everything is getting pretty darn hot = Get OFF the gas :)

/Allan
 
What your engine is doing sounds pretty normal to me too. Basically once under load you will get boost. If you install a boost guage, you will see that the green light comes on with ANY boost, even a very small amount. A boost guage will, however, show you exactly how much. I've found the 1HD-T gets its best economy running under partial boost and somewhat lower RPM (around 1600-1800, but there is almost no where on the highway you can drive that slow).
 
The orange light is there to warn you that something is wrong, most likely your wastegate isn't opening.

As for it coming on at 15psi, I found that one out when I was tuning my manual boost controller. I went from my stock setting of 11psi, up to 14, down to 12, then up to 18 (that's when I backed off...who knows how high it might have gone?) and finally hit 13 so I tightened the jamb nut and that's where she'll stay. I used a stiff spring and the thing was very hard to fine tune.

As Martin said, the green light is normal. It comes on when any positive pressure is made. For automatics in particular, it's hard to make boost under about 1200rpm. If you're on the throttle light enough to stay under that then you don't make boost. If you stomp on it hard enough to make boost, the torque converter will allow the rpms to shoot up high and the boost will shoot up too. I'd love to see how the boost builds in a manual 5spd...the torque converter muddies the waters.
 
Turbo light????? I wish.
 
I ain't got no little green light....................:crybaby:

Just this..............:grinpimp:
BLITZ resize.webp
 
If you are actually driving the vehicle correctly, it is ALWAYS on!!! :D:D:D


Ohh, but not in reverse okay? :D


Seriously, I think that you are fine; even though I'm petrol, I too see boost as low as 800 rpms and my idle is around 600 rpms, so as you described, anytime you are remotely on the pedal. Do you possibly have a friends' or familys' matching vehicle you could observe? Or even one on a lot somewhere? Hope that helps. :cheers:
 
turbocruiser said:
If you are actually driving the vehicle correctly, it is ALWAYS on!!! :D:D:D


Ohh, but not in reverse okay? :D


Seriously, I think that you are fine; even though I'm petrol, I too see boost as low as 800 rpms and my idle is around 600 rpms, so as you described, anytime you are remotely on the pedal. Do you possibly have a friends' or familys' matching vehicle you could observe? Or even one on a lot somewhere? Hope that helps. :cheers:
Click to expand...

There is a function test for both the boost (Green light) and overboost (Red light) pressure switches in the non US manual. Off the top of my head I want to say 2.1psi for the boost switch and 14-15 on the overboostswitch.

Jeff is welcome to try get a copy of the pages out of the FSM is he wants and to try mine out next weekend but my rig, athough the same colour has been modified a touch more than his so I am not sure if it would react the same.
 
My turbo light goes on at or about 1500 rpm. You can feel the boost. Other JDM's I've driven go on closer to 2000 rpm. Doesn't seem to make any significant difference for normal driving.

I've never seen the red or amber lights. I'll have to look for them in the morning.


Kalawang
 
Where is the sensor that these lights connected to? I want to make sure my sensors are working properly as my red light is on all the time.
 
NetJunky said:
Where is the sensor that these lights connected to? I want to make sure my sensors are working properly as my red light is on all the time.
Click to expand...

Depends on the model. Follow the vacuum line from the manifold. It should in the end connect to a two-sensor ssystem on a bracket. On my truck it is bleed to the fuel filter housing, but that is not the case everywhere.

If your ground is bad for the sensors (they ground through the bracket), the red light will always be on. I found out about this when my bracket broke.
 
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